Wockhardt reaches out to nursing homes in Karnataka
Vijaya K - Bangalore

Aims to tap B cities and small towns

Wockhardt Hospital & Heart Institute at Bangalore is networking with nursing homes in B class cities and smaller towns with an aim to reach out to people who cannot afford to come to the city for treatment. Wockhardt calls the nursing homes with which it has tied up with as associate medical centers.

Wockhardt has signed an MoU with an undisclosed nursing home in the Chitradurga district of Karnataka and is talks with 7-8 other nursing homes in the state. The idea is to take high end clinical experience available with Wockhardt to rural areas. There is no capital investment in any of the ventures, Vishal Bali, general manager, Wockhardt Hospital said.

As per the MoU, Wockhardt will extend resources to primary care centers in that it will send a team of cardiologists once every fortnight to deliver clinical experience in the rural areas. At a later stage, Wockhardt will also explore the possibility of setting up satellite telemedicine link with these centers, Bali informed. “One of the biggest advantages from such partnerships is most of these Associate Medical Centers are very small nursing homes which have been just providing the routine primary care of kind of facility. By becoming a part of our network of cardiologists and cardiac surgeons, they are trying to uplift themselves or increase their service capabilities in cardiology or cardiac surgery,” he adds.

Hitherto, the smaller nursing homes which did not have cardiology services can now avail of them and in the process can also upgrade the level of patient care.

Associate Medical Centers will have some protocols created to handle emergencies. When a patient gets admitted, the doctors there will know what kind of protocol has to be followed. “Despite lack of hi tech facilities, the cardiologists or cardiac surgeons can follow the protocol of medication given by our team of cardiologists. These are centers where at least we can give some primary cardiac care,” adds Bali.

Moreover, a constant communication is established between doctors at these centers and Wockhardt in Bangalore on latest treatment avenues. Says Bali: “We organise CME programme to try to constantly upgrade the intellectual levels of the doctors in those townships. Doctors in rural areas are exposed to new forms of medications and procedures. With this interaction we are able to increase the level of care.”

This is not all. Wockhardt also invite doctors in the centers for further training and also make them part of their ICCU team. The team provides their professional and clinical expertise in high end cardiac care to small nursing homes or primary care centres and make those centres grow better. “We are just sharing our knowledge and experience to give the best care” Mr Bali says.

Initially, Wockhardt is looking at Karnataka and the border areas of Tamil Nadu to set up the network